


when there's a burning in your heart

by beyondlogicalclarity



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Multi, OT3, Other, Polyamory, Rating May Change, other tags to be added as we go, their ship name is handsie, these three fuckers are gonna take the triangle and make it a circle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25692052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyondlogicalclarity/pseuds/beyondlogicalclarity
Summary: Landon chooses Hope instead of Josie.Things from there don't go according to plan. They don't know it then, but their relationships are about to shift to a whole new level. A level where all the emotions linking them, past and present, are going to come together to make one interesting future.It won't be easy getting there. But one could argue that when it comes to their lives... when has it ever been easy?--Begins when Landon comes back in 2x08. Follows most of canon (the monsters and the side character things) all the way to the finale, but with some of my own twists and add on scenes because I'm fucking with the ships. Then we run out of canon, but this story will thrive forward.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Landon Kirby & Hope Mikaelson & Josie Saltzman, Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson, Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Landon Kirby/Josie Saltzman, possible others as we go
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	when there's a burning in your heart

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Please, and I can't stress this enough, if any of the couples that are tagged in this bother you...well, exit or continue out of curiosity, but do not spread any hate. You can ship who you want, but sail the ship wars (and anti-Landon vibes) away from the fic.
> 
> 2\. This story was born out of rewatching Legacies again (honestly, idk how many times i've watched this show) and my need to fix the Jandon break up. I didn't expect to like them as much as I do. So, I thought...how can I fix it? Despite Handon being pleasant and tolerable, they aren't considered a fave of mine in the TVD verse, but I have accepted that endgame with a friendly thumbs up...which is probably why my head only had to scream at me once that Landon would never choose Josie over Hope and suddenly Handon became a solid pairing in this fic. My big gay heart pulled out a protest sign and demanded Hosie. Best way to fix shit in a way that makes sense to me while also feeding my heart what it wants and needs? All three individuals are going to fall in love with one another and figure out how to fucking deal with it. 
> 
> 3\. Beta'd by sleepingisanart on tumblr.
> 
> 4\. Title from You Are a Tourist by Death Cab for Cutie
> 
> 5\. I do not own anything.

“Hey, Jo.”

When Josie turns to face Landon, the slight smile instantly slips from her lips.

He shuffles inside her room and she wishes that he would smile at her, kiss her, tell her he’s sorry for leaving and that he picks her. He doesn’t do any of that. Instead, he looks serious with an edge of sadness, and he talks to her so softly.

They both know what he came to do.

Days before he hopped on a bus with Rafael, he had asked her for time to choose between her and Hope. She had waited, waited, waited for him to do so. When he left, she still waited because she just knew he’d be back. There’s a voice in her head that’s been telling her not to wait – that there’s no point, because Landon and Hope? It’s an inevitability – a destiny.

She knew since the eighties decade dance where his heart lies. She was hesitant about bringing everyone’s memories back because she had a feeling that his heart would always lie with the tribrid. Yet, she had hoped that he’d choose her.

She tells him how Christmas is often both sad and happy. He asks to start with the happy, and she’s glad it isn’t actually Christmas.

He wants to take her hands in his.

It’s a kind gesture.

She rests her hands in his and doesn’t tell him that it cuts her inside.

His breath is shaky as he tells her things about her that he adores. When she finds an opening, she says, “You’re in love with Hope”, because she doesn’t think she can handle him saying more and more lovely things when she knows this is how he’s trying to break up with her.

“But that doesn’t mean that I regret a single second.”

His words hurt so, so much.

It doesn’t help that he looks so torn up with tears threatening to spill from his eyes and his voice occasionally cracking from the emotion.

Her face crumples further.

She had been falling in love with him.

\----

“And doing the right thing should never be this hard.”

And it _is_ hard.

Landon’s trying not to cry, swallowing the lump in his throat.

It’s so devastatingly difficult that he has to flee after he tells her - after she nods to him with heart shards in her eyes.

He leaves Josie in her room and only when the door shuts behind him does he blink and the tears fall. He steps further down the hall, but before going back downstairs and outside to where he just knows Hope is still waiting for him, he leans up against the nearest wall. He rests his head against it and closes his eyes hard as he takes in deep breaths through his nose, slowly exhaling through his mouth.

Josie Saltzman is every bit as good and wonderful as he described. She’s the kind of girl he’d want to take home to his parents if he had any around. The kind of girl that leaves a perfect impression of herself on your heart for you to always carry around, long after any possible disconnection in each others’ lives. She’s the kind of girl worthy of the tears he’s producing now.

Wiping his face, Landon clears his throat and pushes away from the wall. He doesn’t even want to think about Josie crying now that he’s gone.

He goes to reclaim his position as Hope’s boyfriend, to tell her he loves her. When he sees her still standing underneath the Christmas lights outside, he can’t shake the feeling that he left a valuable part of himself upstairs in the hands of the girl with the adorable upside down mouth.

\----

Hope knows what Landon went inside to do.

She and Josie had a reunion of sorts the night Landon left. One that had “you belong here,” and “I miss you,” a hug, and a hand hold. “Landon or no Landon,” Josie had said. How are the two of them going to interact now?

She told Landon the reason she didn’t tell him who she was before Josie returned everyone’s memories was because she thought he was happy (happier). But the same could be said for Josie. As much as it pains her to admit it, despite Josie’s jealous streak, they were pretty good together, and almost infuriatingly adorable. Hope believes that it was necessary for Josie to have Landon (or more people like him). Someone in her life that is independent and doesn’t need her to take care of them, but wants her in their life anyway.

Hope remembers seeing them dance together and Josie looked so smitten. Hope would’ve never felt right if she had stepped in, then.

Hope’s wringing her hands as she waits for Landon to come back. And he does. Like she knew he would.

He stands in front of her telling her his truth. She notices the redness to his eyes, evidence that he was crying before he came back to her. She doesn’t mention it, though she does understand it.

Josie Saltzman is caring and intelligent and one of the best people that Hope knows. She’d cry too if she had to break her heart.

Hope soaks in all the words Landon is saying to her, falling for him even harder than she had already.

“This is the part where you say…”

“I love you, too…Landon Kirby. _God_ , I loved you when you didn’t even know it… despite what you looked like in a football uniform.”

They’re laughing and in love and Hope wonders if Josie is upstairs crying.

Landon mentions something about one last thing to do and she smiles when she sees the mistletoe that he refers to. When she looks back down, he is quick to go in for the kiss, but she’s faster than him.

“Landon, wait – ”

Their faces are centimeters apart. Landon registers her rejection, looking down confused at the hands on his chest.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, his dreamy eyes widening. “Does my breath smell bad?”

Hope chuckles, grabbing his hand before he can breathe in it and check for himself. She shakes her head in answer to his question before her smile dims and she starts to frown. Her hand squeezes his hand for comfort. She’s missed holding it.

“Landon, you _just_ broke up with Josie.”

She sees a flash of awful emotion in his eyes. It tugs at her heart, but he unknowingly tries to mend it with his next words. Maybe he didn’t even realize his eyes told her a story.

“Which was inevitable the moment my memories were restored. It was hard knowing I had to choose. I care about Josie – more than I can rightfully express, but you – ” This time he squeezes her hand. “You _are_ my heart, Hope. To think otherwise would be a betrayal to it.”

Her heart swells with love as much as it clenches with pain.

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

Landon’s shoulders slump. “I didn’t either.”

She wants to protest when he takes his hand away, stuffing both of them into the pockets of his jacket as he looks at her. There’s no trace of happiness on his face.

“You don’t want to get back together.”

“No! No, I do. _Of course_ I do,” Hope tells him desperately, reaching up to cup his face in her hands. He denies it by moving away and it feels like a sucker punch to the gut. Her hands drop limply to her sides. “I just don’t think I’d feel right parading around with you directly after you broke up with Josie. It wouldn’t be fair to her.”

“Wouldn’t not being together after I broke up with her so we can be together unfair to her?”

There’s a pause as they both frown and try to process his words, checking to see that it was said right with its meaning understandable.

Landon sighs, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. “You didn’t see her up there, Hope. It – It was like hurting an innocent rabbit.”

Hope raises her eyebrows, shrugging in a jokingly manner. “Well, we do do that around here.”

Landon isn’t amused and Hope admits poor timing to herself, apologizing out loud.

He looks sad, guilty, as he says, “I don’t want to have caused that for nothing.”

“Landon.” Hope’s voice is incredibly soft as she looks at him, trying to express herself not only in her tone, but through her words and facial expressions. “It isn’t for nothing. I’ve waited _months_ for you. As much as I hate to do it, I can wait some more. Which is why we should have the decency to let the rabbit heal before it’s introduced back into the wild.”

He’s thinking it over in his head and he’s about as stubborn as she is, which she expects him to be here, but he isn’t.

“Okay.” Landon says, giving her a nod. “We’ll wait.”

Hope doesn’t stop him when he pulls her in by the waist, bodies touching. He’s looking down at her with his pillowy lips in a tender smile and the lights hanging above them twinkle in his eyes. He is so, so handsome.

“Because you’re worth it, Hope Mikaelson.”

She loves him. She loves him. Oh, God, does she love him.

A part of her can’t believe she’s actually doing this – stalling getting back with this wonderful boy who loves her more than the stars love the night sky. She has wanted him back since walking in the darkness with Clarke. But this is the right thing to do, right? It’s like why she didn’t stop Josie and Landon from walking away from the dance together.

It hurts just the same.

But she had thought he was happy. She thinks Josie will be happy, or at least less miserable, not having to see them together so fresh after losing him.

Resting her head on his chest, Hope closes her eyes. She soaks up his warmth, the smell of his Old Spice cologne, the feeling she gets in her chest when he holds her just a little tighter – a little closer.

His chin is resting on the top of her head, making it feel weird when he starts to talk. “For the record, we are still standing underneath the mistletoe and it would be a shame not to follow tradition.”

Hope laughs into his chest, shaking her head because she really does adore him.

He tilts her head up with a hand under her chin and kisses her for the first time since right before her Malivore experience. It’s everything she’s been waiting for since she’s been back. Actually, it’s everything she’s been waiting for since she last kissed him and jumped in the black goo.

Her breath spills pass his lips, warming the inside of her home, because _he is_ her home.

So, why does it feel like the construction isn’t complete?

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment and/or kudos this. Please, do not post a hateful comment.


End file.
